Storms roll through Valley, taking down power lines, trees

PHOENIX -- A massive wall of dust followed by thunderstorms rolled through the Valley on Monday evening, knocking down power lines and trees in Tempe and flooding streets.

Mark O'Malley with the National Weather Service said the Buckeye area had about an inch and a half of rain. Ahwatukee, Avondale, Tempe each had about a half-inch to three-quarters of an inch of rain. The strongest wind gust was recorded at the Buckeye airport, 68 mph.

As is typical of Valley storms, parts of metro Phoenix weren't affected by the storm much at all.

"There were places in the east Valley that saw nothing at all. Most areas saw 40-50 mile per hour winds with the blowing dust which reduced visibility to a few hundred feet," O'Malley said.

Sky Harbor Airport recorded winds of 55 mph.

Some mobile homes near Kyrene and Baseline roads in Tempe were damaged.

Diana Stewart, who resides at the Chaparral Mobile Home Park in Tempe, said her home didn't lose power but damage was done.

"I am seeing many, many trees down but worse than that I am seeing lots of neighbors with roofs peeled off, skirting all over the road," Stewart said. "My patio covers both front and back are all over the place."

SRP had about 7,500 customers without power, but by late night were down to 300 customers.

Final update: Down to ~300 customers without power; crews working to restore. See details on outage map anytime: http://t.co/PuulcgnVEe